Detective Mitch Preston (DeNiro) is a no nonsense, tough guy cop who just wants to do his job. Patrol Officer Trey Sellars is a cop who wants to be an actor. The two cross paths when Sellars messes up one of Preston's undercover jobs, and on national television gets handcuffed (with his own cuffs) to a fence. Preston ends up shooting a tv camera, and the station decides that they want Preston to star in a new reality series. The idea being if he doesn't agree, they'll sue the police station for $10 million. So Preston reluctantly agrees, and then the search is on for his partner. So of course Sellars is given the job because Preston hates him. A camera crew is then sent along with these guys, following their every move as they search for a drug dealing bad guy who has a big gun.

One of the sad parts of the plot is that they're really searching for a guy with a big gun. It's supposed to be this holy grail of guns, but a movie centered around a couple of cops looking for a big gun sounds odd and not very exciting no matter what this gun can do. Preston was essentially a one-note character who hated being on tv. Any time the tv execs (led by Rene Russo) suggested something, he automatically hated it including having Sellars as his partner. Sellars was another one-note character, who always played to the camera and concentrated on that more than actual police work. They're the original Odd Couple! Then of course as the movie moved along, Preston started to like Sellars and Sellars started to do some real police work. It was a typical buddy cop film, with the small twist of it being televised. But the whole 'reality show' concept didn't really add much to the film. Every so often there would be a joke about the camera, or the satellite truck would be following them during a car chase, but otherwise there was nothing about the reality show concept that made any difference in the film.

Eddie Murphy still has the ability to be very funny when he's let loose, but the script kept him reigned in too much. He would toss off a funny line or two, but his character was too one-dimensional to really let loose. DeNiro, who we know can be funny as the straight man to a comedic partner (Analyze This, Meet the Parents) was also muted. He seemed more like a caricature of his serious self rather than a new character. He also had a couple of funny lines, but for the most part played the same old 'older serious cop who just wants to do his job but in the end changes for the better'. Even the villian was the same 'bad guy with funny hair and a funny accent' but this one didn't have any reason for what he was doing. He was just a guy with a big gun who wanted to what? Take over world? Sell more drugs? Steal money? All of the above? It was almost like he was thrown in there as an after thought. Even a cameo from William Shatner didn't help as they used him for a few minutes in a couple of pretty funny scenes, then he was never heard from again. There was nothing new or fresh about this script and it had all the potential in the world to be different.

With the reality series genre starting to slowly fade away on television, this movie might have been better suited for a release about a year ago. Now with Survivor being the only reality series still getting decent ratings, the whole idea of a movie about a reality series isn't as fresh and new as it could have been a year ago. A movie like Series 7: The Contenders was a brilliant send-up of reality television, and a highly underrated and underseen film. It's not a movie that did well in the mainstream because it was shot in such a way it felt very real and was very violent, but amazingly funny at the same time. Showtime has that potential but never followed through on the concept. They just threw in some extra camera angles and Rene Russo and decided that was enough. With Eddie Murphy and Robert DeNiro leading your cast, you could have done a much better job playing to their strengths, rather than stuffing them into pre-conceived roles. And as an aside, the promotion of the movie could have been a lot better. The movie poster is generic at best, and the tv commercials didn't do much to excite me. Although after watching the film maybe that wasn't possible.

So overall Showtime was a movie that had a few funny moments, had the potential to be a lot more, but never came together. Murphy, DeNiro and Russo were fine, but their characters were poorly written and were never allowed to go beyond what was written for them. It wasn't a horrible movie, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't a great movie. It was just so-so.

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